Bridge Micro-Deformation Monitoring Scheme with Integrated Sensing and Communications

Abstract: In this paper, we propose a novel integrated sensing and communications (ISAC) scheme to perform bridge micro-deformation monitoring (BMDM) in complex environments. We first provide an excitation-bridge coupling model to represent the micro-deformation process of the bridge. Next, we design a novel frame structure for BMDM applications, and construct the OFDM echo channel model for basic scene of BMDM, including micro-deformation, dynamic objects, and static environment. Then, we develop a phasor statistical analysis method based on average cancellation algorithm to suppress the interference of dynamic objects, as well as a circle fitting method based on least squares algorithm to remove the interference of static environment near the monitoring area. Furthermore, we extract the micro-deformation feature vector from the OFDM echo signals after inverse discrete fourier transform (IDFT), and derive vertical micro-deformation value with the time-frequency phase resources. Simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed BMDM scheme and its robustness against both dynamic interferences and static interferences.